Question

I have a property declared like this:

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableArray *pricingLevels;

And I assign it like this:

 self.pricingLevels = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

in my dealloc I have this:

self.pricinglevels=nil;

When I analyze my code with xCode it says I have a memory leak here:

self.pricingLevels = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

Should I be using an autolrelease on this because the self.pricinglevels holds a reference to the array also?

Answer 1

self.pricingLevels is a property declared as retained which means every time you set it thru property assignment (the dot-syntax OR the method), the object automatically retains the object for you.

self.pricingLevels = [NSMutableArray array];
[self setPricingLevels:[NSMutableArray array]];

The above code will do the same and automatically retain the array passed. This is what happens under the hood (or something similar). This method gets called:

- (void)setPricingLevels:(NSMutableArray *)a {
    if(_pricingLevels != a) {
        [_pricingLevels release];
        _pricingLevels = [a retain];
    }
}

You see? Automatically retained, while the previous value automatically gets released.

EDIT to answer your last question: Yes you should call autorelease